Rubber Soul caught the Beatles on the cusp of change. A new box set opens the vaults

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Set us as preferred When the Beatles released “Rubber Soul,” their second album of 1965, some of their most loyal teenybopper fans were put off.“You look as if you’d all been dead for weeks,” complained fan Annabel Lee in a poetic letter in the February 1966 issue of the Beatles Book Monthly.

She was referring to the photo on the album jacket, which featured the group in the woods, clad in black turtlenecks and tan suede jackets, looking off to the side or, in the case of John, coolly down his nose.In retrospect, Robert Freeman’s autumnal, artfully distorted photograph was an entirely apt image for a worldlier, darker, more grown-up Beatles record.The Beatles’ “Rubber Soul” has gotten the special deluxe treatment, with a bevy of new editions on CD, vinyl and Blu-ray and a museum show’s worth of expertly curated material released Friday.

As usual, there are punchy new mixes by Giles Martin along with never officially released session recordings and demos, including audio of a hitherto unknown song of John’s, and an up-to-date account of the writing, recording and legacy of the album.Whatever Annabel Lee may have thought, this was the period just before the Beatles got truly weird; the fantastic sonic explorations of “Revolver” would come next.There was a lowering of tempos, a concerted exploration of new guitar sounds and a new depth of introspection, reflecting a multitude of diverse musical inspirations: Bob Dylan and Ravi Shankar (“Norwegian Wood”), the chiming guitars of the Byrds (“If I Needed Someone”), Otis Redding (“Drive My Car”), Smokey Robinson and J.S.

Bach (the recurring guitar motif of “In My Life” and George Martin’s pseudo-harpsichord solo), even Paul’s holiday in Greece (the twanging bouzouki-style guitar of “Girl”).Speaking with London Life magazine around t...